Not so good friday

Saturday

Mar 30, 2013 at 9:30 AM

Truman State drops twinbill vs. FHSU

Ryan Ronan @RyanRonan_KDE

KIRKSVILLE – Hosting No. 17 ranked Ft. Hays State was going to be a tough task for the Truman State Bulldogs, but that task became impossible as the Bulldogs failed to score a single run in the two games as they lost 1-0 and 4-0.

Game 1 saw Ft. Hays pitcher Maddie Holub throw a no-hitter and hit a solo home run to account for the game's only run. Holub came into the game with an ERA of sub-one and faced off against TSU ace Hannah Washburn, who saw her ERA drop to 1.93 after allowing only the one run.Washburn struck out seven Lady Tigers and recorded 10 other outs by fly ball.

A walk to Liz Leath and a hit-by-pitch committed against Laura Miller are the only two blemishes that kept the game from being a perfect one.Truman State head coach Erin Brown wasn’t thrilled with her team’s offensive approach.

“I thought we played well and made some plays in the field, but clearly we needed to get on base and score a run,” said Brown.

The TSU players weren’t thrilled with their effort.

“We go out and we want to win but we don’t fight for it and they fought for it today. You can’t win a game win you don’t score. We faced a really good pitcher but that’s not an excuse,” said Kelsey Bollman.

Game 2 started much the same way as Game 1 ended, as Holub got the Lady Tigers on the board with another solo home run, her 13th of the season in the top of the first. Truman gave up four runs in the first four innings as the Lady Tigers kept the pressure on starting pitcher Kindra Henze, who was pull after the third. Henze and Kristen Krause did their best to keep Truman in the game, but they offense just wasn’t able to break through.

“The golden rule for us when we’re at the plate is we need to be ready to hit. I don’t mean going up their and swinging at every strike, but when a pitch comes when need to be ready to jump on it, and in the second game we just didn’t do that,” said Brown.

The Bulldogs were only able to get more than one base runner on at twice in the whole game. One of those situations came in the bottom of the sixth when the ladies loaded the bases with two outs and had Miller at the plate representing the tying run.

“We were able to get hits in the second game but we were unable to get anything done with two outs,” said Bollman.

Things didn’t go the Bulldogs' way early in the second game.“Our effort and attitude wasn’t there in the second game after they scored a couple runs. Instead of keeping our heads up we got down. I also feel like we didn’t give full effort on ground balls and that we needed better effort on the infield,” said Brown.

Eight games into MIAA play and about halfway through the regular season, Friday’s games against the nationally-ranked Lady Tigers gave Truman a gauge on where they are at this point in the season.

“They are a great team, and losing 1-0 and 4-0 are tough losses for us, but I think we saw that we can hang in there with a team that is nationally ranked and at the top of our conference,” said Bollman.

Brown isn’t into moral victories,“They are a good team, but we have competed with other nationally-ranked teams so I knew we would be in it today. I would feel a lot better if I knew that we gave great effort and left it all out there, but I don’t feel like we did that in the second game,” said Brown.

The two losses dropped the TSU record to 16-8 overall and 4-4 in the MIAA. There is no rest for the weary, as the ladies host Nebraska-Kearney on Saturday in another MIAA doubleheader. The Bulldogs will look to break their season high three-game losing streak starting at 1 p.m.